Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the vessel cultivation of Lentinus edodes in which Lentinus edodes is cultivated in a vessel such as a bottle or bag, the culture medium is taken out from the vessel after development of hyphae and fruiting bodies are produced from the mushroom-generating surface of the culture medium, excluding the bottom surface thereof, wherein the generating position and the total number of fruiting bodies can optionally be controlled.
The applicants have previously invented and described a method in which fruiting bodies of Lentinus edodes are produced from the mushroom-generating surface of a culture medium promptly and with assurance of success (see the specification of Japanese Pat. application No. 83133/76, corresponding to U.S. Ser. No. 808,977, filed June 22, 1977). It is a principal object of the present invention to improve this method in such a manner that the generating positions and the total number of fruiting bodies of Lentinus edodes can optionally be controlled by controlling the radiation applied to the mushroom-generating surface of the culture medium, whereby fruiting bodies having a high commercial value can be produced with assured success.
In order to be commercially acceptable, the raw fruiting bodies of Lentinus edodes should have an umbrella or cap portion diameter of at least about 3 cm, generally from 4 to 6 cm. In the vessel cultivation of Lentinus edodes, in order to grow and produce large quantities of fruiting bodies as rapidly as possible, optimum conditions for the growth of Lentinus edodes are employed, but under such optimum growing conditions, the number of fruiting bodies produced in one culture medium is increased. Since the total weight of fruiting bodies that can or should be produced in one culture medium naturally is limited, if the number of fruiting bodies is thus increased, the sizes of the respective fruiting bodies are inevitably decreased and the quantity of commercially acceptable fruiting bodies, namely, fruiting bodies having an umbrella portion diameter of at least 3 cm, is reduced. As a procedure for overcoming this defect, there has been proposed a method in which the fruiting bodies are thinned out. However, this method requires much time and labor and is not satisfactory for practical commercial purposes.